Hereward the Wake

Hereward the Wake (1035-1072) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who led a initially successful, yet short-lived rebellion against the Norman lords of England from East Anglia in 1070.

Biography
Hereward the Wake was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England in 1035 to a Danish father, Asketil, and an Anglo-Saxon mother. Hereward was a minor noble, holding lands at Crowland in the boggy and marshy fenland. He was exiled at the age of eighteen for his disobedience to his father and his disruptive behavior, which had led to him being declared an outlaw by King Edward the Confessor. He went into exile in Cornwall, Ireland, and Flanders, taking part in Baldwin V of Flanders' expeditions in the Scheldt estuary during the early 1060s. Hereward became a successful mercenary who took part in tournaments at Cambrai and married a Gallo-Germanic woman at Saint-Omer. He returned to England a few days after Baldwin's death in September 1067, finding his father's lands taken over by Normans and his murdered brother's head hanging above his home's door. He then crept up on a group of drinking Normans, slaughtering them before placing their heads above his door. Together with the Danes, he laid siege to the monastery on the Isle of Ely in the fens of East Anglia, and the Dano-Saxon rebels had good food supplies, local allies, and support from Earl Morcar of Northumbria. King William the Conqueror built a mile-long wooden ramp to the island, but the ramp collapsed when the Normans charged across it; many of them drowned due to the weight of their armor. William then supposedly enlisted the help of an old witch to terrorize the rebels, and Hereward set the fens and the wtich's tower on fire to strike back. The Normans then bribed local monks to lead them via secret route to the island, and Hereward was defeated; Edwin of Mercia was killed, while Morcar was again imprisoned. Hereward was later liberated from prison by his followers and remarried to a woman named Alftruda after his first wife Turfida entered a convent; as he never received a pardon from William, Hereward went into exile in Scotland.